Rogue Monk Madness Ale
Here’s a new beer to look for: Rogue Monk Madness. Not sure how much it will taste like something coming out of a Trappist monastery, but that’s clearly not the point.
The ingredients are a combination of Northwest (after all, Rogue is in Oregon) and Belgian. The flier announcing Monk Madness states, “The five layers of malts create a complex, slightly sweet flavor balanced by five different hop varieties.” As well as “noble” varieties from Belgium, the hops include Amarillo, Summit and Centennial so expect orange, grapefruit and mango character.
The real reason I’m looking forward to trying it - beyond the fact John Maier brewed it - is the Monk Madness is fermented with with Rogue Pac-man yeast rather than a Belgian strain. We’ll see how that works with some of the dark Belgian malts.
The beer is 7.4% abv.
September 18th, 2006 at 3:28 am
Pac-man yeast?? I don’t think that strain is as expressive as any of the strains that produce the Belgian ales I know and love. I am excited to see an American interpretation using American ingredients.
February 8th, 2007 at 1:46 am
I look forward to trying this. I think trying this with no expectations of it trying to be some sort of belgian clone-type brew is obviously pretty important. I can see a lot of people popping the cap and criticizing heavily saying that they don’t pick up on a heavy belgian yeast profile. Too bad for them. I’m sure its will be an amazing tasting brew by a damn good brewer. I’m glad to see that some people don’t feel that we HAVE to stick to the books when trying to brew under a Belgian influence.